


Day 15 - Stars

by GemmaRose



Series: OC-tober [8]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Birth, Gen, Multiverse, Transformer Sparklings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27030457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Firestarter inherited many traits from her creators. Her sire's heavy armour and frametype, her carrier's colours and inner fire. And also, as it turns out, she's inherited Roddy's inability to turn away from a mech in pain when she could do something to help.
Relationships: Hot Rod (Transformers) & Original Character(s), Original Cybertronian Character(s) & Original Cybertronian Character(s)
Series: OC-tober [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958275
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Day 15 - Stars

Firestarter kept her grip on Junior’s hand tight as they stumbled through the portal, gravity shiting slightly around them. “We’re on a ship.” Junior said softly, field furled close and wary as they observed the purple tinted metal around them.

“A Decepticon ship.” Firestarter said what Junior was certainly thinking, and rubbed the blank spot where her badge usually sat. “But when?”

“Can’t tell.” Junior popped the portal gun against her palm. “Battery’s toast, and the barrel lenses are cracked.”

“Well, whoever we find won’t know that.” Firestarter grinned, holding out her hand. Junior flipped her off and swapped the portal gun for something else which looked a lot more like a standard pistol.

“Mag-gun.” she explained, fitting the grip into Firestarter’s hand. “Should stick them to the floor, though Slash wound up on the ceiling a few times.”

A moan echoed through the halls, and Junior startled, ducking her slight frame behind Firestarter’s bulkier one. “Let’s go find out what’s going on.” she said, and kept the Mag-gun pointed at the floor as they advanced, finger near but not quite on the trigger. She’d watched Junior and Slash test enough of Junior’s inventions that she knew how to at least look like she knew what she was doing, though at anything past point blank range she wasn’t certain of her ability to aim.

the ship wasn’t terribly large, but it was very much empty, every door they checked leading to a room with no people in it. Until, of course, one did. It was a berthroom, Firestarter could tell that much at a glance, and the mech in pain kneeling on the berth was a welcome sight.

“Captain!” Junior chirped, and Firestarter held out her arm to stop her friend from rushing forward. Something was wrong, this wasn’t the Rodimus that the two of them knew. He was too small, too boxy, all hard lines and sharp angles until he turned, and then Firestarter’s tank did a weird swooping thing because her carrier’s front was _lumpy_ , the spot where his chestplate and its familiar flame decal should be taken up instead by two protometal mounds which glowed softly from within in a tank-churning shade of pink. His midsection, too, was lacking the armour which had been there her whole functioning, but the cabling beneath was hidden by a rippling mound of protometal.

“Who-” Rodimus- no, _Hot Rod_ , they’d landed sometime before her carrier found the Matrix- asked, crying out sharply as whatever was under the protometal covering his midsection rippled again. “Who are you?” he lifted one of his arms to point his integrated weapons at them, his other arm wrapped around his middle as much as it would go. As if he was trying to protect that which was causing him so much pain.

“We’re not here to hurt you.” Firestarter said, tossing the mag-gun aside. “My friend and I wound up here by accident.” she reached into her subspace and peeled her magnetic training badge off the upper wall of her internal storage, pressing it to her chest, where it belonged. “She’s Junior, I’m Starry.” no reason to tell this Hot Rod who didn’t and might not ever know her that he was looking at a flamethrower named Firestarter.

“Hot Ro-ah!” Hot Rod’s weapon arm dropped to clutch his middle. “Hot Rod. Are either of you a medic?”

“No, but I can follow instructions.” Firestarter pulled herself up as tall as she could, which wasn’t a whole lot considering she was a mini, and stepped towards her injured carrier. “Tell me how to help.”

“Frag.” Hot Rod spat, bracing one hand on the wall as his middle shivered again, his field flaring with pain. “Not much- not much you can do, ‘less you have emergence training.”

“Emergence?” Firestarter frowned, and Hot Rod _screamed_ , fingers clawing right through the wall, leaving molten slag behind. “I can hold your hand!” she said quickly. Her carrier always held her hand when she had to go to Medical for check-ups or to get patched up after playing rough with Slash.

“I’d melt you.” Hot Rod shook his helm.

“You won’t.” she promised, and flames flickered from her fingertips and barrel. Hot Rod stared at her for a moment, optics flicking from her hand to her visor, then he released the wall and grabbed her offered hand. He was smaller than the Rodimus who’d raised her, but not by much. It still took both of Firestarter’s hands to wrap around his one.

“Junior, find this ship’s medbay, or whatever it’s got.” she said, more to get her friend moving and distracted than anything else. From the pile of stuff on the berth, she guessed Hot Rod already had everything he needed on hand.

“Medgrade.” Hot Rod supplied. “I’ll need-” he grunted in pain, clutching at Firestarter’s hand with crushing force and the same leashed heat her carrier used to ease aches out of her servos when she was still growing.

“Medgrade, right.” Junior nodded quickly, and rushed out the door.

“Oh, frag.” Hot Rod groaned, tipping forwards. Firestarter wedged herself under the front of his shoulder, and did her best to ignore the disconcertingly soft protometal pressing against the side of her helm.

“What’s happening?” she asked, and Hot Rod’s hand not clutching hers dropped down from his belly to somewhere Firestarter couldn’t see.

“They’re coming.” he panted, which didn’t explain anything at all, and then screamed again. “C’mon, bitties.” Hot Rod groaned, field a mess of _encouragement pain love_. “Time to- come out now.”

Bitties? Wait- was this how sparklings happened in this universe?! Firestarter had thought all universes would work like their own, with the crystal and protometal and all happening _outside_ the carrier’s frame, only the newspark itself developed internally. Given the way Hot Rod was screaming in pain, that didn’t seem to be the case here.

There was a wet noise, a thud, and Firestarter’s spark wrenched in its casing at the unmistakable sound of a sparkling’s cry of distress. She slipped her hands free of Hot Rod’s, ducking around the now-reduced bulge of his abdomen so see, lying between his legs and covered in something that looked an awful lot like energon, the lumpy little form of a sparkling.

The sound left her vocaliser without so much as a thought, and she reached out to pull the sparkling closer. Hot Rod leaned over her, and a towel was pushed into her hands, softer than any she could remember using on the Lost Light. She wiped the sparkling off quickly, cooing Comfort Safety Love as the gross towel was exchanged for an equally soft blanket.

“Sunsung.” Hot Rod choked out, his field pulsing with love so strong it nearly overpowered the pain. “Primus, he’s- he’s perfect.”

“I got the Medgrade!” Junior cried, running back into the room with a full size cube. “Where’d the bitty come from?”

Firestarter mutely pointed at Hot Rod, and she saw the moment Junior’s clever processor put the pieces together. “That’s- that’s a lot of, uh-”

“Energon?” Hot Rod doubled over with a fresh groan, and Firestarter set Sunsung down next to his carrier’s leg as she took one of Hot Rod’s hands in her own again for him to squeeze. “Don’ worry. That’s- that’s normal.” he shuddered, engine audibly straining and field fluttering with _love encouragement eagerness_ over the deep steady thrum of pain. Now that she was looking for it, Firestarter could see when the bulge of his middle grew smaller. Smaller by, approximately, the volume of one squishy sparkling and whatever fluids were easing its way out of Hot Rod’s frame.

“Medgrade’s on the table bye!” Junior blurted, and bolted out of the room. Firestarter didn’t blame her. If there were anyone else to help Hot Rod, she wouldn’t be here either.

Another disgusting wet sound, another thud, another sparkling crying because the outside world was too cold, the warmth and safety of their carrier too far. Firestarter made to collect and clean that one as well, but Hot Rod spasmed and suddenly his belly was smaller again. This splash was loudest of all, the thud softest, and Hot Rod pushed her away with a protective flare of his field as he shuffled backwards. Not much, just enough that he could tuck his pedes together and kneel with his aft resting on them, his sparklings squirming between his folded legs.

“So beautiful.” he murmured, his vocaliser thick with static. Firestarter handed him a clean towel, and he scooped both sparklings up in it, wiping off and then kissing their tiny, soft faces. “Starfall, Moonlit. Oh, you’re so lovely.” he cooed at them as he cleaned, wiping them down with the utmost care, and Firestarter’s spark twisted funny in its casing as she realized she knew the song he was humming.

Rodimus had sung it to her, when she was small, when she crawled into his berth after a nightmare and needed her carrier’s warm embrace to get back to recharge. She handed Hot Rod one blanket, then another, and then finally scooped up Sunsung from where he’d been dozing against Hot Rod’s leg and settled the soft, squishy little sparkling in his carrier’s arms. “Little one, sleepy one, come now and wander. Far in the star-country, glimmering yonder~” she sang, layering her glyphs with the same trills of Comfort Love Protection that Rodimus had always used for her.

“Here comes a star for you, here is another.” Hot Rod crooned, looking at her with something like wonder as he shifted the sparklings in his arms. They were fuelling, she realized belatedly. The weird squishy things on his chest were full of fuel for them, with a nozzle they could drink from without spilling everywhere. “Look at the sky and we’ll count them together.”

“That’s a Nyonian song.” he said softly as the sparklings dropped into recharge. “You sing like one of our crechekeepers, but I don’t know you.”

“I wasn’t forged on Cybertron.” she said by way of explanation, deciding on the spot that she wouldn’t tell Hot Rod the truth. Let him believe what he would, it was too early yet in the war for him to know in advance what would happen. “My carrier sang that for me, when I had trouble recharging after a nightmare.” static prickled at the edge of her vocaliser, and continued to even after she reset it.

“You remind me of him.” she mumbled, and Hot Rod let out a soft coo which was at once Adoration Comfort Beckoning. She snuffled closer on her knees, doing her best to ignore the cooling, drying mess on the berth, and leaned against Hot Rod’s side.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’ll make a fine crechekeeper when you grow up.” he said, and his field wrapped around Firestarter in a warm blanket of _comfort love contentment_.

This, she thought, was already looking like their best wrong universe yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies to any not-logged-in readers, but due to an ex who refuses to leave me alone I have had to disable anon comments. Kudos are still open though, and if you want to scream (or would like me to write a fic for you) come check me out on Pillowfort! No account required to get my discord, and I'm always happy to chat. [[Link](https://www.pillowfort.social/GemmaRose)]


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